Merkel: Britain a vital part of EU

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has insisted Britain is an important part of the European Union (AP)

Britain will remain an important member of the European Union, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has declared, despite the row over a new eurozone treaty.

Mrs Merkel, the leader of Europe's biggest economy, told her parliament that there was no quick fix to the 17-nation currency bloc's crisis, but she stressed that it offers an opportunity to achieve an ever more integrated union.

"The vision of a genuine political union is beginning to take shape," she said, praising the outcome of last week's EU summit to create a new treaty that moves the bloc toward tough debt ceilings and more fiscal integration.

"The opportunities lying in this crisis are many times greater than its risks, that is my conviction," she said. The new sense of shared responsibility and destiny across the eurozone and the EU's other 10 members "will far outlast this crisis," she added.

Mrs Merkel said that, while she regrets the decision of prime minister David Cameron to veto a complete EU deal, "it is beyond doubt for me that Great Britain will in future continue to be an important partner in the European Union."

Britain "is a reliable partner for Europe not just in questions of foreign and security policy ... (It) is also this partner in many other questions - in competitiveness, in the internal market, for trade, for climate protection," she said.

Mrs Merkel stressed that the new treaty was open to all members prepared to join - cautiously alluding to hopes that Britain might eventually follow suit - and should be merged with the EU's official treaties as early as possible.

There are no easy solutions and there will be setbacks in the long battle to tackle the crisis, Mrs Merkel said. "What is crucial is not the duration; what is crucial is whether we will allow setbacks to discourage us or not."

Mrs Merkel vowed that Europe would not only overcome the debt crisis, "but Europe will emerge stronger from it than when it entered the crisis."